Grace for Grace

So I'm back in the States now-- I flew in several Fridays ago with an airlines that apparently doesn't feed you on the long flights unless you are willing to pay. My new friend in the next seat shared her sandwich with me, a real blessing for a hungry stomach. At the time of the flight home it was hard to really comprehend what that meant for us to be flying "home." And what did "home" mean anyways? I had spent my semester making Dakar a sort of home, being at home in the previously unfamiliar. I had made friends and family there, people I didn't want to forget. And then I had traveled in Europe, making new "homes" along the way with people we only stayed with for the max of a week.

I think the whole idea of "home" has been a tricky one for me. The hardest question to answer is, "Where are you from?" This is pretty typical Third Culture Kid, though, and you learn to say that home is where your family lives. Home is wherever it is that God has you. According to "Lion King", "Home is where your rump rests," and I see a lot of wisdom in that. Because life here is transient. Because in the end our homes should not be found on this Earth. So going back to taking that last flight of my semester abroad: I couldn't help but feel a bit bittersweet about it all. Yes, I was going back to the familiar. I was going back to the world in which I have a job, in which I get to cook for myself again, in which I can drive. I was going to people who know my story and don't need the same 2 minute explanation about who I am and what I am studying. And I knew I was starting a whole new adventure by boarding that plane. I knew I was walking into a busy summer and a senior year filled with new challenges and joys-- I was ready for it. But I also knew that this new beginning meant an end to the sort of adventure I had been living since January. Time to go back to the life that had seemed so far away. Like I discovered when I got to go to Thailand last summer, a certain part of me really comes alive when I am overseas. But God loves to adventure with us wherever He leads us, and the very nature of this adventure is shifting and forming as you go.

Like a river. The same stream but different water. The same all-knowing and loving God, but He moves different ways at different times. The water keeps flowing but the stream stays the same. I recently read the book "If" by Amy Carmichael (really good-- go read it!) and was very challenged by my limited understanding of the love of God. She talks about the idea of "grace for grace" and relates it to that river. Grace instead of grace. A supply of grace that constantly replaces the present grace. Life is like that- you need different grace, different direction and wisdom at each corner of the path, and yet God is the same unchangeable God who never ceases to pour out his Love on us as we wait for Him.

I've missed having mountains to hike (this is Mt. Si)